Fitchburg schools rank high statewide in minor suspensions

Four schools in Fitchburg and Lowell rank among the top 20 statewide for educational days missed per student due to suspensions for minor offenses.

Fitchburg, as a district, also ranks first in the state for number of days missed per student with a disability due to suspensions for minor incidents and second in the state for days missed by students for suspensions of any kind, according to a report published by the Center for Civil Rights Remedies at UCLA.

Overall, Massachusetts students missed slightly more school due to suspensions in the 2015-16 school year than the year before. Black and disabled students were still suspended at twice the average rate. Some districts, like Lowell, made progress in reducing the suspension disparity between black and white students.

"There's been a lot of work," Lowell Superintendent of Schools Salah Khelfaoui said. "There's been a decrease in the dropout rate in the high school and I think part of it has been a lot of work on suspensions."

The report's authors warn that suspensions are a strong indicator of whether or not a student will graduate, and that schools should be working harder to find alternatives to suspension in many situations.

"People imagine a kid drawing a knife or something very serious, but most of the suspensions we're seeing are for minor offenses," said Daniel Losen, director of the Center for Civil Rights Remedies. "The idea that you have to kick out these bad kids to improve your test scores and educational outcomes is really a myth and isn't supported by the research.

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The data has had an immediate effect in Fitchburg, where administrators began working on a response before the Center for Civil Rights Remedies published its study.

"We have a full out campaign at our schools to improve school culture and life," said Paula Giaquinto, assistant superintendent of curriculum and grants, adding "it's that culture-climate thing that sets the table for a positive learning community. Without it, the behavioral discipline aspect is much more reactionary."

Giaquinto said Fitchburg schools are on track to reduce the number of days students miss due to suspensions by 30 to 50 percent compared with last school year.

Massachusetts tracks 18 categories of suspensions. Offenses like violence, theft, drug and tobacco use, bullying and vandalism have their own categories, but most suspensions fall into the 18th group: non-drug, non-violent, and non-criminal-related offenses.

Compared to entire public school districts, charter schools had much higher rates of suspensions. But the Center for Civil Rights Remedies study shows that within districts and between schools with similar kinds of students suspension rates can vary widely.

The Leblanc Therapeutic Day School in Lowell ranked ninth highest in the state in 2015-16 with a rate of 2.06 days missed per student due to suspensions for minor offenses. The Laura Lee Therapeutic Day School came in 11th highest, with 1.61 suspension days.

Fitchburg's Longsjo Middle School was 13th with 1.41 suspension days per student for minor offenses and Fitchburg High School was 17th with 1.13 per student.

By contrast, the 307-student Moody Elementary School in Lowell was among the best in the state with just one student suspended for a single day. At Fitchburg's 740-student South Street Elementary, four students were suspended for a total of 12 days.

"You take each case on a case-by-case basis," said Paul Andrews, director of professional development and government services for the Massachusetts Association of School Superintendents. "There's a lot of interpretation that's used. I think rightly so. There's no unified standard among every principal where every principal thinks the same. There are principals that are more disciplinarian than others."

Andrews added that discipline is still one of the most complicated issues that school administrators face, and that schools can always use more resources like guidance counselors and training.

Fitchburg has been focusing its efforts in the high school and Longsjo Middle School. One of the most effective moves so far has been changing the way the schools address frequent unexcused absences.

Rather that waiting until a student racks up enough absences to warrant a suspension, Giaquinto said, teachers are now required to meet with students who miss class to discuss what factors prompted them to skip.

"Class cuts have reduced dramatically because teachers are being more responsive to the students in the class," she said. And as a result, fewer students are suspended.

That's the kind of reaction Losen and the other researchers were hoping for.

"It really does call for stepped up action and intervention, in a supportive way," he said. "We're not talking about blaming and shaming."

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